Ahmedabad, May 27: Every possible step to reduce stress was taken during the board exam this year. Yet, the HSC result (general stream) declared on Thursday is a dismal a 77.04 pass percentage, the worst since 2004. This year, Gujarat Secondary and higher Secondary Education Board ( GSHSEB) had reduced the pass marks to 33 from 35 for all subjects and the papers were largely easy.
Besides, the board had decided not to declare a merit list or mark any student as ‘fail’. Instead the report card said ‘needs improvement’ for students scoring less than 33 marks out of 100.
Of the 3,52,350 students who appeared for the HSC (general stream) exams, 2,68,823 cleared it. Also, of the 1,881 students who appeared for the HSC (vocation course) exams, 1,657 passed with a pass percentage of 88.66. Two grades were given to students – E1 where the students have scored between 21 and 32 marks and E2 where the students has scored less than 20 marks.
Board members said that one of the reasons for the low result could be due to implementation of the recommendation that the board must stop giving up to 15 grace marks to students. The recommendation was made by a committee headed by former chief secretary, government of Gujarat, Sudhir Mankad.
Board officials said that up to five grace marks were given to students categorized as borderline cases. If there were no grace marks, the number of those who needed improvement would have increased by 25,000. The pass out percentage would have dropped further and would have gone below 70 per cent, said a board official.
The official added that the fact that 27,000 more students have failed in one subject in comparison to last year is an indication that grace marks is the main reason for low results. A total of 2,521 differently-abled students appeared for the examination and of these 2,052 students cleared it. Only 469 students needed improvement, said the board official. Late date for applying for rechecking of marks is June 9.
–Agencies